Research Activity

The Optical Networks Group (ONG) is involved in studies of optical networks on all time and length scales.

The research of the ONG focuses on the study of the optical fibre network architectures and transmission infrastructure to support the growing broadband traffic & service requirements.

The ONG has close interactions with industry and other leading research groups around the World. Our ability to explore fundamental physics (in the Photonics activity) of new opto-electronic devices through to high-speed optical systems and networks research is a particular strength, and unique among UK universities.

Reconfigurable optical networks with distributed control have the capability to dynamically (and rapidly) respond to variable traffic demands. This has the potential to significantly reduce the operating network costs and provide efficiencies by providing bandwidth more efficiently in terms of required resources and energy consumed. Read more...

Digital coherent transceivers have emerged as a promising solution for next generation optical networks. This research area investigates both fundamental aspects of the design of such transceivers (including digital signal processing, modulation formats and forward error correction) to their application in the network.Read more...

Understanding the fibre channel transmission limits and developing techniques to achieve it. This includes approaches to unlocking the transmission capacity through the use of advanced digital signal processing techniques in both single- and multi-mode fibres. The research covers the full range of optical communication requirements, from ultra-long haul and submarine, through metro and access, to inter- and intra-data centre. Read more...